Senses
by Aislin30a
Summary: Iruka gets hit with an unknown jutsu while protecting Naruto. Betrayal and possible war cast a shadow over Konoha. What role will Iruka play and what are Kakashi's motives? Future Kakashi/Iruka
1. Loss

**Title:** Senses

**Pairings:** Future Kakashi/Iruka

**Rating:** T

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Naruto or anything associated with it. I'm doing this for fun, not profit.

**Summary:** Iruka gets hit with an unknown jutsu while protecting Naruto. Betrayal and possibly war cast a shadow over Konoha. What role will Iruka play and what are Kakashi's motives?

**Author's Notes:** I'm aiming for six chapters with this. We'll see how it goes. ^^

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><p><em>Senses Chapter One<em>

**Loss**

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><p>Four figures make their way along the road about a day's march from Konoha. Sunlight flashes across the metal of their hitai-ate, giving pause to anyone who might mistake their slow, meandering pace for that of an easy target.<p>

They can afford to walk openly on the roads of the Fire Country, as ninja of the hidden leaf it might even be considered their duty to do so. To serve as a casual reminder to the criminal element of Konoha's continued presence and strength. It has been, and will always be, a ninja's greatest honor to-

"Liar!" Naruto and Sakura yell, halting Kakashi mid-sentence.

"Ichiraku's is less than two hours away if we ran up in the trees," Naruto grumbles, patting his stomach as though comforting a kicked puppy, "We're only taking the long way cause you've got your face stuck in that pervy book!"

Iruka tries to stifle a laugh behind his hand. It's been hard work, keeping a straight face through the duration of their mission. As an instructor at the Academy he can't often afford to enjoy the entertainment that his students unwittingly provide him as it generally involves sharp objects and a willful ignorance of their own mortality. It's much easier to laugh at Naruto's antics now that he isn't the one responsible for reigning him in. Still, he doesn't want to set a bad example or encourage Naruto's occasional insubordination and has tried to keep all visible signs of his amusement to a minimum.

Luckily, Naruto doesn't seem to have noticed his former sensei's reaction.

"This is sooo boring," Naruto grumbles, glaring disgruntledly at the jounin.

"Hnn..." Is Kakashi's only reply, gaze fixed on the little orange book in his hand. This unsatisfactory response is met with _The Look_.

Iruka can spot _The Look_ from across a crowded practice yard in the pouring rain while dodging wayward kunai with a head cold. In a normal classroom _The Look_ portends paint in places you didn't know you had, pulled hair, stubborn insubordination and the creative, if vaguely obscene, use of paste. At the Academy Iruka got all that plus a room full of hyper pre-genin with delusions of death-defying heroics who were also _heavily armed_. For an Academy sensei, shutting down _The Look_ wasn't just a way to get through your day, it also significantly cut down on your medical bills.

But Naruto isn't Iruka's student anymore and if Kakashi hasn't learned to spot this particular sign then it's entirely possible that he deserves whatever chaos the boy's about to dish out.

Naruto jogs ahead and turns around grinning as he brings his hands up to his face, forming a seal and muttering something under his breath. There's a puff of smoke and for a moment Iruka is worried that Naruto will reappear with blond pigtails and some added anatomy. He's initially relieved when this is not the case before he registers what he's seeing and has to slap both hands over his mouth to stifle any sound before it can escape. In place of Naruto there is now another Kakashi, a henge just as distorted as the ones Naruto used to do of the Hokage during his time at the Academy. Tall and gangly with hair that more closely resembles a small shrub, the most shocking difference, however, is the missing mask and the buck teeth the lack of apparel uncovers.

A quick glance to the side reveals that Kakashi is still slouched over reading his _Icha Icha_, his only reaction is to lift one hand to turn the page.

Sakura, on the other hand, has started to stalk forward, adjusting her gloves with a very unladylike growl.

Naruto has yet to notice his impending doom and has started making faces in an attempt to get Kakashi's attention, pulling at his cheeks, sticking out his tongue and rolling his eyes. When this fails to get a reaction he starts to mimic the jounin, pulling out a dogeared little book and pretending to read it as his finger travels across each line of the page. Very slowly the Kakashi henge grins, brings his hand up to cover his mouth and _giggles_ like a demented chipmunk.

"Naruto!" Sakura yells as her fist slams into the middle of the bushy white hair. The henge's eyes bug out before Naruto reappears in a puff of smoke clutching his head.

Iruka tries his best not to laugh, making fun of one's sensei should most defiantly not be rewarded, but he feels about ready to burst and his eyes are burning so he really can't help it when a highly strangled but undeniably amused little hiccup bubbles out.

He's mortified and he shouldn't look but he does, as Sakura and Naruto wrestle up ahead, and is more than a little surprised to find that Kakashi still isn't paying attention. Not to his students as Naruto whines about Sakura beating him up and certainly not to Iruka who can't help but wonder if Kakashi is so absorbed in his porn that he didn't even hear Iruka's embarrassing slip. Until Kakashi's single visible eye flicks up to meet Iruka's gaze, one eyebrow quirked ever so slightly.

"Something funny, sensei?" Kakashi asks, innocently.

Iruka blushes furiously and turns his head away.

"You know, Naruto," Iruka says in an attempt to change the subject, bringing one hand up to scratch at his scar in order to hide his flushed face, "You've been a lot of places with Jiraiya-sama but some of us don't leave the village all that often. It's a nice day out for a walk, we should enjoy it."

Naruto looks up from the strangle hold Sakura has on his head and grins. "Hey, that's right! This is the first mission you've been on in a while, huh Iruka-sensei? It's been great, right? Sai should get sick more often- Ouch!"

"We really appreciate you coming with us, sensei," Sakura says, her radiant smile completely incongruent with the way she's grinding her fist into Naruto's head. "Hey! There's a meadow up ahead, we should have a picnic! We've only got ration bars and soldier pills but it'll still be nice to sit in the flowers and eat and it's not like we're in a hurry." This is followed by twin glares directed at Kakashi.

"No picnics," Kakashi says, looking up at his students for the first time that morning.

"Eeeehhh?" Naruto whines, "Why not?"

Kakashi closes his book with a snap. "Because we're being ambushed."

The ground groans under their feet and then erupts in a fountain of rock and earth, splitting the team apart as they jump away from the jutsu. Iruka lands with his feet planted against a tree, looks up to get his barrings and dodges to the left just in time to avoid a kunai to the throat. He lands in a roll, grabs three shuriken as he gets to his feet and throws them in the direction of his attacker. Using the distraction to his advantage, Iruka jumps up through the branches to gain some distance. He can hear Naruto shout across the road and the popping of displaced air.

_Shadow clones_, Iruka thinks and feels some of the tension leave his body. Grabbing onto a branch he switches direction and kicks out with his feet, sticking himself to a branch with a burst of chakra. He has a kunai in his hand and brings it up to guard his face just as the enemy ninja comes crashing up through the leaves. Iruka catches a glimpse of his face, hard and angry with blood dripping into one eye from a cut across his temple, focuses on his hitai-ate and gets thrown backwards by a kick he should have been able to block. He hits the ground hard, his breath rushing out of his lungs all at once, rolls until he hits a chunk of road and lies gasping as his attacker drops down in front of him.

The other ninja raises up from his crouch, cape flowing to one side as he brings one arm up in front of him, shifting into an offensive stance, ready to strike.

"What- why?" Iruka gasps. His kunai are scattered across the ground, his pouch must have burst open when he fell, none of them are in easy reach but if he rolls with the coming attack then maybe-

"Why not?" The man answers, bringing Iruka's attention back up. His eyes flick towards the nearest kunai, reading Iruka's intent. He tips his head to the side as he smirks, light flashes off his hitai-ate, the mark of Suna standing out in sharp relief.

The sand shinobi screams as a blast of fire hits him from the side.

"On your feet, sensei!" Kakashi yells, deflecting attacks from two ninja trying to take advantage of his diverted attention.

Iruka jumps to his feet, dodges the flaming ninja rolling on the ground and snatches up the nearest kunai, bringing it down on the man's head. He hears the bone crunch as his blade breaks through the skull. He ducks several shuriken as he gathers as many of his lost kunai as he can carry and darts behind a large rock. A swift look at the battle is all he allows himself before crouching down to avoid being seen. There are several dead attackers but most of them are still fighting, at least twice as many enemies as allies, all Suna ninja judging by their clothing (the betrayal hurts, he can't even imagine what Naruto must be feeling, but there isn't time to process it now – only time to act). Most of them seemed to be attacking Kakashi or Naruto's clones but he'd caught a glimpse of one kneeling in the middle of the ruined road.

"Chaaa!" Sakura roars somewhere to his right. The ground shakes as the boom of bursting rock explodes over the sounds of the battle, from the impact of Sakura's chakra charged fist, Iruka has no doubt of this. He uses the disturbance to break away from his hiding spot to get a better view of the kneeling ninja.

She's crouched in the center of the blast from the first jutsu, hands flying through seals faster than Iruka can make them out. The entirety of her focus is on Naruto, she spares none for the battle around her, not even when Naruto's last two clones converge on her kneeling form. The first gets taken down before it gets within 10 feet of her but the second clone's kunai comes within inches of her face before vanishing in a puff of smoke. She doesn't even blink. Iruka doesn't know what she's planning but the faint pulses of chakra she emits can't mean anything good. He dashes across the road jumping over ruble and dodging flying rocks, intent on disrupting her concentration. The hiss of metal cutting air is the only warning of the enemy behind him, he leans to the side, feels the sting of senbon slicing the skin of his cheek and brings his arms up to block the kick to his face.

"Naruto, behind y- _Ugh_!"

Iruka sees Sakura go flying behind the enemy ninja at his throat, sees the man smirk at something over his own shoulder. Sakura won't be able to land properly, Iruka realizes and his breath catches, but Kakashi takes care of that, throwing his own attacker and sprinting to catch his student before she hits the ground. Iruka looks up at the enemy ninja, sees the look of triumph on his face and slams his hitai-ate into the bastard's nose. He spins, pushing the flailing ninja away and screams at what he sees.

"_Naruto!_"

Naruto has his back turned, fending off an attack as the enemy kunoichi, no longer kneeling, lunges towards him, her raised hand sparking with a sickening chakra pulse.

It's stupid. About the stupidest thing any ninja can do and he knows it because he's spent entire lessons trying to burn it into his students' brains but he does it anyway. Forms the seals faster than he ever has in his life and transports himself between his former student and an unidentified jutsu in a swirl of leaves, taking it full force in the stomach.

The chakra rips at his vest and burns his insides, sending ice cold fire along his chakra pathways. In a split second the feeling peeks and then fades, leaving a stillness that is wholly unnatural. As he's flung back his vision tunnels inward, focusing on the enemy kunoichi, on the shock in her eyes as they roll back in her head and Iruka's vision fades to black. He hits two bodies on the way to the ground, slams into the earth and skids across the grass and moss and leaves. Hears his breath leave him for the second time, hears the grunt of another man landing not far from him and Naruto screaming, hurt and desperate and not quite human and that too fades away.

He turns his head, searching for the sound, for the boy with the wide grin and the sad eyes and can almost feel his sunny hair against his cheek. But it's just grass and it's not there for long. It's fresh scent lingers though, along with the musty scent of decaying leaves. Then it's gone and the only thing that's left is the tang of blood on his tongue. He holds onto it, desperately, weakly then lets it go.

There's nothing left for him to cling to.

So he sleeps.

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	2. Salt and Flowers

**Author's Notes:** O_o I can't believe I left this story sitting for a year. I can't promise that the next chapter will be out in a week or even two but it won't be a year from now, I swear!

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><p><em>Senses Chapter Two<em>

**Salt and Flowers**

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><p>Iruka's first thought, when he comes to, is that he's <em>really<em> glad that there's still someone there to do the thinking.

His second thought is that his first thought might not be as accurate as he'd like.

Iruka has been a full time instructor at the ninja Academy from the time Naruto and his classmates started there and any time he doesn't spend in the classroom he spends behind the desk in the mission office. So his own missions have been few and far between for a while now but, despite this, he's still a shinobi of the Hidden Leaf and there are some things carved so deep in the bone that no amount of runny noses or eraser pranks can expunge them. Currently his mind is running through the Ninja's Post-Blackout Check List of: _Arms, legs, hands, feet, yes, no, undetermined?_ And he's coming up empty.

There's no pain, which would be a relief except that there isn't much of anything else either. He feels weight and a vague sense of direction as though he's tipped forward, on the edge of falling. There's no warmth, although he doesn't feel cold either, he can think clearly so he must be breathing but he can't feel his chest expand or the air moving through him. The world is so quiet that he feels as though he should be able to hear his heart beating in his chest, the blood rushing through his ears, only he can't. He can't hear anything at all. His vision is black, not the deep red of dappled light through closed eyelids but _black_. Deep, inky nothingness. He thinks about opening his eyes but nothing changes and he's not even sure his eyes are there. If it weren't for that feeling of weight he could believe he was just a mind floating in a void. It's very possibly the most disturbing experience he's ever had and Iruka is not at all ashamed of the little prickle of fear that's running through his mind.

Iruka imagines he takes a shaky breath at this point (he can almost trick himself into feeling the rush of air into his lungs), to acknowledge that, in all probability, he's in enemy hands under the influence of some combination of poisons or genjitsu or both and that he is, almost certainly, totally fucked.

He feels better.

Well if it's genjitsu, and the more he considers it the more inclined he is to think that's the case, then his next course of action is clear. A strong pulse of chakra would dispel it instantly but he'd be throwing himself into an unknown situation with any number of variables, few of which were likely to be in his favor. Still, with nothing to work with his best option is to gather more intel and that means breaking the genjitsu. At the very least he needs to know that Naruto and Sakura (_and Kakashi too_) are okay.

His mind made up, Iruka centers himself and pulls.

At nothing.

There's _nothing_.

**Nothing, nothing, **_**nothing**_, as he reaches and twists and pulls but there's _nothing_ and the panic rips and screams through his mind as the world tips over.

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><p>It could have been a moment, just a moment in that nothingness. It could have been an eternity.<p>

It _felt_ like an eternity.

Or maybe like one instant warped and stretched out until it wrapped him up and smothered him.

The instant breaks and Iruka comes back to himself as two points of pain burst above him, biting into him. He's so relieved he could cry, doesn't care that it's agony because it's _chakra_ and he can _feel_ it. Two more flare to life below him, equally painful. He wonders briefly, as the two points above pulse burning hot and then settle, what's happening to him. Is he being attacked? Healed? Restrained?

Chakra pushes into his core and for a split second he can feel his body again, spread out with his arms pinned up by his head (_Restrained then_, he thinks), before the feeling shatters into icy needles shredding his chakra pathways like wet paper.

He would give up everything, absolutely everything, in that moment - every happy day, every friendly face, every successful prank he'd ever pulled off, every crayon drawing and half eaten apple left on his desk, every brick in the academy building, every quiet day at the mission desk, every name on the Memorial Stone and _every last one_ of Naruto's smiles - he'd give up absolutely everything if only he could _scream_.

Salt.

The taste is so intense it overpowers everything else, the burning chakra drains away and Iruka hardly notices because his whole being is _salt, salt,_ **salt**. Late night ramen and bits of potato chips crushed on the classroom floor and the taste of his own tears as Mizuki's shuriken cleaves into his back. And _**no**_, he wouldn't, _couldn't_, give up even one smile, not _ever_.

Iruka's mind drifts into black with the taste of salt bursting on his tongue like fireworks.

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><p>The next time Iruka wakes up (<em>have I really<em>, he wonders, _or am I just dreaming?_) he's still in the void, sightless, soundless, with no chakra, and no sense of his body except a dull weight and the persistent and vexing sensation that the world has turned sideways. The taste of salt is gone, replaced by something a little rank but still entirely welcome given the circumstances. And there's something else.

The void is filled with the scent of flowers.

He must have taken a deep breath because the smell becomes overpowering, the perfume of verbena and tulips and irises leaving him almost dizzy. An image floods his mind, and he can see it almost as if it's happening right in-front of his eyes, his first class of kunoichi returning from their very first lesson in Ikebana. Little Ino, bright eyed and bursting with confidence, trailed by shy, shy Sakura clutching her arrangement to her chest and oh so pleased when she's called to the front of the class. They've grown so much since then and he's honestly proud of what they've achieved but he misses those little girls just now, trapped in the void. He misses their simple exuberance and sweet smiles, the way they brought out the best in each other without the posturing or rivalry, back before needless choices were made and their hair grew long.

This is no genjitsu, Iruka decides. _Something_ has been done to him but if the void was an illusion it would have broken completely when the surge of invading chakra had ripped through him, even in the pain he'd still been blind and deaf and lost. _At least something useful came out of it_, he thinks as he focuses on the scents around him. It's not much to work with but it's more than he had.

Verbena and tulips and irises.

None of those were growing in the field near the ambush - just daisies, wood poppies and pink moss, a riot of color but all very common. He's definitely been moved since the battle then, the question being where? Verbena are generally hearty flowers but tulips and irises are a little more picky. Iruka tries to think of where he's seen them all growing together but other than flower shops and a few gardens nothing comes to mind.

Iruka would really like to frown and huff in irritation but he can't feel his face so he settles for a string of mental cursing instead. He's got an in at Anko's favorite dango stand just waiting for the day she slips up in-front of his students but until then he'll make full use of her extensive vocabulary. Even if it's just silently in his head. He wishes he could make himself breath deeply again but now that he consciously wants to it just won't happen.

_Focus,_ he thinks, _just breathe and focus._

Verbena and tulips and irises and something... almost acidic, sharp across his mind. What does it remind him of?

Something like dread and anxiety, sickness and death.

What is it? He can't think clearly anymore.

Iruka struggles briefly then gives in and lets himself fade out.

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End file.
